Environmentalist and television presenter Chris Packham made a documentary about it and media around the country covered SCA's promise to plant three trees for each one used to make its Velvet toilet tissue brand.

Under its Three Trees promise Velvet funds the planting and growing of indigenous trees in Brazil through ethical forestry company Amata.

So far more than 4m trees have been planted on previously barren deforested land, and 15m more around watercourses are protected forever. The Three Trees promise goes well beyond industry standards and is pioneering new methods in forestry management on a massive scale.

To get the message across to a wide audience an SCA project team created a phased, long-burn communications campaign, which included TV commercials, PR, and online and direct customer communication. Three elements took place within the award timescale.

A documentary filmed by Chris Packham when he visited the project in Brazil was shared with politicians and journalists and with the public through the SCA website and YouTube. Before the launch, more than 50 key opinion leaders were briefed about the initiative. More than 60 people attended the launch itself, with coverage appearing in the Express, ITV's This Morning, trade press and environmental titles.

Packham included the Three Trees promise in his subsequent one-man show, which toured theatres throughout the UK. The promise was picked up by 12 media outlets, including eight local radio stations. All in all, more than eight million people have had the opportunity to see (OTS) coverage of the initiative.

The third strand involved Velvet promoting the benefits of growing trees in urban settings through its partnership with Trees for Cities. An event in London was covered by eight titles, with 300,000 OTS.

With further phases of the campaign taking place in 2013, plenty more people look set to get Velvet's message about valuing trees and protecting biodiversity.

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